FRANK LINGO

War Won't Solve It

What does the War on Terrorism have in common with the War on
Drugs? Both have macho posturing but neither one solves the problem.
Then there's the undeclared but very real War on Nature waged by the
Bush administration, giving us three ways to lose:

1) We alienate the entire Muslim world while creating a new
generation of suicide martyrs.

A recent Gallup poll of world opinion on the US bombing of
Afghanistan found in 32 out of 35 countries, a majority favored a
criminal justice approach rather than a military solution. Even our
European allies' support has been dropping steadily. The majority
prefer taking the terrorists to trial in international court.

As the Taliban falls, in comes the Northern Alliance. Both
factions have financed their war by selling Afghanistan's abundant
poppy crop for making heroin. Both benefitted from the CIA's
non-interference, perhaps even cooperation in their drug trafficking
-- the Northern Alliance just recently and the Taliban back in the
1980's when they were fighting the Soviet Union. Incidentally, the
number of US heroin addicts has tripled in the last eight years while
the price dropped.

Speaking of the home front, how about that Drug Enforcement
Administration! In case you were watching "All-Anthrax" news and
missed this story, on Oct. 25 about 30 DEA agents swooped into action
to protect our nation from ... the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource
Center. The DEA seized the Center's marijuana, which is distributed
mostly to AIDS victims to relieve their pain and wasting syndrome,
along with the Center's computers and bank accounts. No arrests were
made.

California passed a law in 1996 allowing medical marijuana, but
the feds keep exerting their authority which was upheld by the
Supreme Court. And the National Institute on Drug Abuse still
stupidly classifies marijuana as a narcotic, addictive drug with no
medicinal value.

Meanwhile, marijuana's straight brother, hemp, is also persecuted
just for looking like its brother who likes to get high. In the land
of the free, it's illegal to grow hemp, which George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson grew, and which is one of the world's most useful
and versatile products. Hemp could save forests by using it for paper
in case you want to write, say, the Declaration of Independence. It's
also great for rope, clothing and much more.

As with corn and soy, hemp oil could be a renewable non-polluting
fuel for our vehicles but that would make too much sense for our
government to pursue. Why would we support US farmers when we could
support Middle Eastern tyrants like the Saudis and continue enriching
Big Oil? Why bring our troops and jets safely home when we could
defend oily dictators over there and foster resentment that breeds
suicide bombers?

Also in the plans for keeping the world safe for oil commerce is a
proposed pipeline across Afghanistan which those pesky Taliban
blocked. A new book named the The Hidden Truth alleges that
former FBI agent John O'Neill, who died in the World Trade Center
attack, was frustrated that the information needed to dismantle Osama
bin Laden's terrorist network was available in Saudi Arabia. The book
says the Saudis wouldn't share that information and the US State
Department didn't insist for fear of offending our Saudi
"allies."

Meanwhile, the war on drugs is a failure. Any prudish freakout the
American people had about marijuana was over decades ago, but the
police and politicians still don't get it. Over 70 million of us have
smoked it and we know it's less dangerous than the legal killers
tobacco and alcohol. Since 1996, in nearly every state where drug
reform measures have been on the ballot, they have passed. Yet over
730,000 arrests were made last year for marijuana -- more than for
murder, robbery, assault and rape combined. Talk about terrorism! How
about getting tossed in prison, where gang rape is almost a
certainty, for the heinous crime of putting on a buzz?

Terrorists should be extracted and prosecuted. Drug issues should
be handled by the medical profession, not law enforcement. We don't
need to poison the air just to go from here to there.

Frank Lingo is a writer in Lawrence, Kan. E-mail:
franklingo@earthlink.net